1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems for processing and analyzing fluid samples. Certain embodiments relate to chip based flow cytometer type systems configured to perform measurements of samples including fluorescently tagged particles.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description and examples are not admitted to be prior art by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Generally, flow cytometers are devices configured to use optical techniques to measure one or more characteristics of particles or cells in a fluid flowing through the devices. This particle or cell interrogation can be exploited for a number of purposes such as assaying for various chemical and biological molecules. Although flow cytometers offer a number of advantages, the devices have a number of disadvantages. For example, flow cytometers generally utilize optical components that are sensitive to their environment. Furthermore, flow cytometers are typically time consuming to manufacture, complicated to operate, and expensive. These characteristics often restrict the use of flow cytometers to highly trained technicians. Moreover, some samples need to be processed before being run through a flow cytometer and, therefore, significant laboratory resources and other equipment are often needed for the analysis of assays.
It would, therefore, be advantageous to develop systems that measure characteristics of particles or cells in a fluid and are relatively simple to operate. In addition, it would be beneficial for such systems to be capable of performing the measurements without requiring significant laboratory resources for pre-processing of the sample fluids. Furthermore, it would be advantageous for the systems to include components which are substantially insensitive to their environments. Moreover, it would be beneficial for such systems to be relatively inexpensive and not time consuming to manufacture.